The Undeniable Evolution of Managed Services

FROM PERSONAL TO BUSINESS, THE INCREASING POPULARITY OF SUBSCRIPTIONS

Those of us who remember the 1970s-1980s understood what it was like to live in a ‘transactional’ world. Payor agrees to receive an asset (typically a product or service) from payee in exchange for a one-time payment – oftentimes with the payor assuming a myriad of responsibilities and risks inherent with the asset received. However, a subscription dynamic has long pervaded some areas of our personal lives – cable TV, a ‘land’ telephone line, our favorite monthly magazine. What started out as a handful of basic subscriptions has exploded in the last decade, enveloping every aspect of our lives – cell phones, banking, food, music, movies, transportation…even clothing.

Individuals are not alone in this. Companies are also moving to that mentality in droves, eschewing significant upfront equipment and setup fees that come with burdensome, inefficient ways to manage their information. Instead, they are increasingly opting to simply sign up for the outcomes they desire, when they desire them – and letting a Managed Services Provider (MSP) worry about delivering it. According to business intelligence research firm Statista, worldwide spending on Managed Services hit $156 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 (up from $107B in 2014), and is expected to grow at an average YOY clip of +11% between now and 2023. If numbers pace with projections, the cumulative spike will be +90% in just six years – nearly double the current spending level. Furthermore, as early as 2019, Managed Services spending could account for nearly 20% of total IT spending worldwide.

TEC Communications, a Cisco Premier Certified Partner and trusted IT solutions provider celebrating its 40th Anniversary in 2019, has the resources to support and maintain your organization’s IT so you can focus on the most important task – GROWING YOUR BUSINESS.

THE APPEAL OF SUBSCRIPTION-BASED SERVICES

At its foundation, Subscription business cultivates an ongoing and close-knit relationship with customers. Since long-term, worry-free subscriptions are the goal of both parties, ensuring a positive customer experience throughout the lifecycle of the relationship is paramount. Managed Services allows for consistent, cohesive engagement throughout the relationship, across all functional areas – trial, installation, training, management, support, maintenance and upgrades. Beyond a simple product purchase transaction, MSPs can use the subscription dynamic to convey their IT expertise, correlating actions to their customers’ business outcomes – thus strengthening the provider-customer relationship.

Many organizations have come to the realization that they simply don’t have the resources to manage their IT by themselves anymore, and have made the decision to outsource it to an MSP. (According to the Computer Technology Industry Association’s 2016 Buying Guide for Managed Services, nearly 2/3rds of organizations were using some form of Managed Services. Two years on, that number has certainly only grown. As these services become more commonplace, an increasing number of companies are utilizing them for management of various functions, including email hosting, storage, disaster & backup recovery and network & application monitoring. These Managed Services work in conjunction with – not in place of – the company’s IT department, providing monitoring and maintenance that allows the internal staff to dedicate their time to other critical projects.

When first introduced into the IT landscape, cost savings were envisioned as the foremost benefit of Managed Services. However, companies now realize that it also improves the reliability and efficiency of their operations, and are using Managed Services as a true contributor to their ROI.

WHAT DO MANAGED SERVICES LOOK LIKE?

A Subscription-based Managed Services IT model involves a payment structure that allows enterprises to ‘purchase’ (subscribe to) provided IT services for a contracted period of time (typically monthly or annually) at a fixed price.

As businesses move to the Cloud in droves (our ‘Busting Cloud Myths’ blog earlier in the year reported the extent to which it’s happening…50% of all organizations by 2018 and nearly 70% by 2020), the Subscription-based Managed IT model is likewise experiencing a spike. Companies have discovered that moving to such a model – where the MSP proactively deploys, monitors, maintains and optimizes all IT infrastructure and workstations – relieves their IT personnel of the pressure of keeping on top of these details. Consequently, IT staffs realize significantly greater capacity to concentrate on the pressing issues affecting their company, with an eye towards advancing efficiency and productivity.

A key selling point of Managed Services: unlike the traditional transactional ‘per-project’ scenario, Managed Services can encompass the ENTIRE SCOPE OF EVERY SINGLE TOOL for a company’s IT journey, from adopting Cloud technology to Cybersecurity, Data Storage, Collaboration, Wireless & Mobile solutions, and Support Services.

BENEFITS OF SUBSCRIPTION-BASED MANAGED SERVICES

COST STREAMLINING by unloading significant in-house investment of infrastructure and equipment onto the Managed IT provider

CUSTOMIZED PLANS that can adjust to reflect actual usage…so you no longer have to pay for capacity you don’t utilize

FIXED REGULAR EXPENSES that are tailored to fit your budget, won’t change mid-contract, and has potential to lower with longer terms

CENTRALIZED EXPERT 24/7 INFRASTRUCTURE & SUPPORT for applications, servers and every other IT need that already exists in the Cloud (a key reason so many companies are moving)

A SAFER ENVIRONMENT FOR YOUR DATA, as the most innovative cybersecurity tools in existence reside in the Cloud

FASTER RESPONSE AND RECOVERY TIMES to keep you up and running in the event of an interruption…and get you back up after a disaster with minimal downtime

EASE OF SCALABILITY whose flexibility allows your IT support to grow as your business does

MANAGED SERVICES AS PART OF A SMART CLOUD STRATEGY

As part of a Cloud-based Managed Services platform, an organization’s MSP administers the daily IT management for Cloud-based services, potentially including services such as: technical support, monitoring, reporting, performance testing and backup & disaster recovery.

Many IT departments may not have the bandwidth to successfully administer and maintain a Cloud environment. This is where MSPs come to the rescue – a Cloud IT services expert that can manage network operations, computing, data storage, cybersecurity, apps and more.

IN CONCLUSION

A move to Subscription-Based Managed Services:

Optimizes what you pay for IT support

Gives you access to the latest upgrades in Cloud technology

Allows you to adopt Cloud best practices

Enables your IT staff to focus on your company’s most important issues by saving them from taking the time to train, troubleshoot and maintain your technology

Increases productivity of your employees by giving them that time back to attend to your business’ needs and helping it grow

TEC Communications is a Cisco Premier Certified Partner and trusted IT solutions provider celebrating its 40th Anniversary in 2019. Go to https://tec4it.com or call us at 440.333.5903 to find out how TEC Communications can manage your business IT infrastructure, leaving your employees to do what they were hired to do – GROW YOUR BUSINESS.